the rose of darkness
by TinkersDisciple
Summary: Ryoga and Ranma figure out a way to remove their curse, but once again the expensive lifestyle of the Tendo dojo gets in their way, and as if two rivals joining union on a quest weren't enough they have to bring Kodachi in the boat too. Pouring more oil into the flames Ryoga discovers his dark side. Will they make it to jusenkyo with all these obstacles?
1. Chapter 1

So, first off, I did only once re-read this story to correct it and that was close after writing it, there is not much I can say about without giving a spoiler, but as of Now: To be continued.

I also wanted to mention some flaws I have made throughout my other fanfictions, at this point being "I had a dream I was your hero" and "The seven science; Verity's revelation" (the latter is the better, trust me on this one, if you haven't seen "wicked science" you have been missing out, but even if you know both "Kissxsis" and "wicked science" the latter fanfiction is just the better of the two).

First off I employed alcohol in these stories, it's not because alcohol is such a big part of my life I can't even make a story without it being in it, but rather I know so little about it that I didn't even think about it, when I included it.

Secondly I misspelled "warmth" as "warms" sometimes.

Thirdly, and this really bugs me, in Instagram I do get feedback, even though it's just pictures shot in a second (I'm definitely not a photographer, just in case I offended somebody who puts actual work into that) while my stories take considerably longer to write.

What am I doing wrong?

How am I supposed to use ?

I want to part of something, not 24/7, but it'd be interesting.

And lastly I'm often referencing things nobody knows besides me, even my username is such a thing obviously *g*, but that is just a minor issue and not of any concern for you potential readers.

So I hope you enjoy this little story (hopefully not too much because as of now it's unfinished), although "teenager fantasy" would cut it rather than "romance", if you want actual heartfelt love and empathy with all the agony attached, I'm going to try and write something like that in the future too, but for now this is all you will get.

So all in all this story is really light and probably something recommendable in case you want to rest your mind and just let some easy thoughts be poured over your brain, and if you wish of course to see a whole other side of Ryoga, one of my four favorites in the show.

At this rate the fanfiction didn't turn out the way I planned it initially, some plots just don't make sense, but you only just notice through character development (I tried to keep it authentic and let everyone be like they were originally created), so I kind of had a hard time fitting my story over the Anime I had thought it for.

I just think "Ranma 1/2" really deserved some credit.

As for "apocalypse now", which I will probably be featuring the categorization segment, that will be mostly in the second part, but since "apocalypse now" is not only controversial and passive-aggressive towards the Vietnam-war, it is also a pretty predictable plot.

so yeah, I just took something mindless and copied it and slapped this Anime over it, I promise to of course spice it up a little.

but like I said, patience you must have, young padawan (that's another thing about me, I'm not into star wars at all *g* and still make this reference, which also a prime example for a platitude).

Tl; dr: I made mistakes. nobody ever comments. you'll have to wait for the second chapter.

The Rose Of Darkness

by Tinkersdisciple, 7th April - 18th October 2015

Ryoga had traveled through the woods for a long time already, in search of nothing particular.

He had once again run away from the Tendo Dojo and into the woods, to come up with some new plan to win the heart of Akane.

He had previously trained together with Ranma back at the Tendo Dojo, Ranma had thought if he'd help him out he wouldn't get on his nerves again.

However since Ryoga was a very skilled martial artist at one point during their training Ryoga had landed a successful strike on Ranma. A successful sweet chin music had swept the glorious fighter of his feet and into unconsciousness.

In the dream Ranma had a future with Akane in which they were stuck in friendzone forever and everyone else had taken an aphrodisiac and then gotten arrested.

Ranma felt very sick after waking up from this dream and had sent Ryoga away to recover from the shock of seeing this unfortunate, but luckily unreal, fate.

So once again Ryoga had to train by himself in the woods, usually this meant for Ryoga to wander around until he met another master of martial arts who would teach him a new trick which would help him overpower Ranma, at least until Ranma would learn this trick himself.

However this time Ryoga was less fortunate and found no potential partner for his training, and on top of that he had lost his orientation. He had absolutely no idea how to beat Ranma in the future, and since the idea of beating Ranma was so deeply linked in his head with the idea of winning the heart of Akane his mental block put him in a state close to desperation.

To be fair the idea of winning Akane's heart by beating Ranma was not entirely a thing Ryoga had made up, since Ranma was Akane's fiancé he had to be out of the way if Ryoga and Akane wanted to marry, but since Akane had often disliked it when Ranma had attacked someone for reasons he had left unexplained to her she would hardly approve of Ryoga beating up Ranma, and deep inside Ryoga knew that very well.

But Ryoga was desperate for Akane and had often gone to great length to get her attention. He had spent a lot of time with Akane, mostly in disguise as her pet P-Chan; he still had bruises on his body from her hitting him in her sleep. Today Ryoga had to sleep alone.

When he woke up he saw he was in someone's garden, the garden was surrounded by white brick walls and in the center was a huge building with walls consisting almost entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows, with a vertical separation each meter, and a red roof.

Ryoga's resting place was dangerously close to a large pond, Ryoga took a step back as he saw it, his aversion with cold water was only reasonable.

Ryoga started to make his way around the house, making sure he would always stay in contact to the building with his right hand. He was doing well and didn't leave the garden by accident, then, as he walked along a longer side of the house his hand would suddenly reach into thin air and he stopped walking.

He looked aside and noticed that he had reached an entrance, the facts that there was a gravel trail leading towards this location and that the point he had started from lay only about ten to fifteen meters in front of him got by him unnoticed.

Ryoga entered the estate and saw that the room he was in was incredibly large, since the walls were practically of glass it really looked like the room was endless. Ryoga shouted hello multiple times to attract the owner to his position.

Unnoticed by him he was approached from behind by a girl in a white blouse with a black, knee length skirt and as she stood really close behind him she shouted: "Attention!"

Ryoga jumped up in the air and turned around startled after landing again.

The girl laughed and Ryoga instantly noticed who she was; "Miss Kodachi." Ryoga said in a surprised tone, "I'm sorry to just bump into your house but I got lost on my journey to the Tendo Dojo and just wanted to kindly ask for the direction."

He explained himself further. Kodachi kept her poker face and announced: "I can hardly believe that a man like you really wants to train with the Tendo family, which is foul and unworthy for truly gifted martial artists," and then she smiled mischievously, "unless of course you're just as stubborn as a fighter as that despicable Tendo is."

Ryoga grinned in response, simply expressing disbelief and answered: "Would you introduce me to one of your Dojo's fighters so I can proof what kind of martial artist I am if you don't believe me."

Ryoga made a pause and added: "You'll still not believe it when I'm done, hehe."

Kodachi felt like attacking Ryoga on an instant, but just as she was about Ryoga interrupted her and said: "As a gentleman I cannot allow me to hurt a lady, I need a competitor that is a man too."

Kodachi sighed and called her brother over and quickly briefed him to the situation. Her brother introduced himself as a proud warrior: "I'm Tatewaki Kuno, I go by the name "blue thunder of Furinkan High" now proof yourself in the face of a grandmaster that stands before you."

Ryoga didn't think twice and quickly engaged into combat with Kuno.

After mere seconds Kuno flew through the air and landed on his face after travelling many meters in midair.

Ryoga smiled smug and patted his hands, Kodachi spent a moment of thinking, and then she smiled: "You are a true martial artist, why don't you stay in my Dojo, I could use a good trainer; there is this redheaded girl at the Tendo Dojo that interferes with every of my actions and I want to keep her from doing so."

"A redheaded girl…" Ryoga thought for a moment, "O.K. I will teach you, I myself despise this redheaded girl, but as a Gentleman I can't get to her."

He didn't mention that he was just not strong enough to win against the redheaded girl and had already tried to attack her multiple times since the Gentleman's rules don't count for girl-type Ranma, because he saw an opportunity in teaming up with her.

Ryoga and Kodachi went inside to start the training. Kodachi removed her blouse and skirt like a sim and revealed that she wore a green leotard underneath it, much to Ryoga's surprise.

He hadn't really had a chance to see her in it before, but now he indeed liked what he saw.

"O.K." Ryoga announced, "Now show me what you already know about fighting."

Kodachi produced a red ribbon and swung it around laughing and emitting black rose leaves from the center of the spiraling ribbon.

Ryoga used his red umbrella to block the leaves and shouted: "stop!" Kodachi let the ribbon fall and looked at her trainer.

"You're doing it wrong, martial arts is not about "spin-to-win", there's still is a lot for you to learn, young padawan." Ryoga said very determined, at the same point he was still somehow unsure if he was really determined enough to train someone, especially her.

However she did stop using the ribbon and focused on what Ryoga would teach her.

He showed of various fighting movies during this first lesson, which Kodachi would imitate to become familiar with the movement.

They trained all day long and Ryoga was happy with their progress.

Kodachi prepared dinner for them, it tasted excellent but it also made Ryoga unnaturally sleepy.

When Ryoga came to again he felt weak, Kodachi lay besides him and smiled seductively.

Ryoga was mind- and maybe literally fucked.

Then Kodachi got up and started laughing as Ryoga began to see that he was not where he fell asleep in the evening.

He was on the rooftop of the Tendo Dojo in the predawn hours and Kodachi had brought him here to prematurely attack Ranma. Ryoga tried to move but couldn't do so, Kodachi laughed shortly and jokingly asked: "How were you gonna fight this way?"

Ryoga was now really mad at her, but just before he could speak again she jumped off the roof and Ryoga could do nothing to stop her anymore.

He felt like he was in a mix of "summer wine" and "livin' la Vida loca". Ryoga now too jumped off the roof and in the Tendo garden, he had a pretty painful landing as his legs were still a little limp from the poison.

He rubbed his ankle and sighed in pain but got up very quickly again.

He witnessed Kodachi using her newly learned moves on Ranma who, in his usual fashion, dodged every single hit by jumping backwards and tried to reason with Kodachi while doing so, but became further more taunting in the process.

Suddenly Ryoga got tipped on his shoulder and turned around to see Akane in her Pajamas, she looked really sleepy.

"What is this rumble so early in the morning about again?" she asked, as her eyes were hardly open she did not see Ranma and Kodachi fighting.

"Everything is fine, just go back to bed." Ryoga tried to convince her in order to prevent her from noticing the assault, as she would disdain it if Ryoga tried to attack the Tendo dojo.

Just after Ryoga had said that Ranma and Kodachi jumped at them and threw them over in the process.

They all four lay on the floor now, Kodachi on Ranma and Ryoga on Akane.

To prevent any unnecessary troubles Ryoga quickly grabbed Kodachi by her arm and pulled her up, then he continued escorting her by carrying her like a bride.

Now Ryoga just had to hope that Kodachi would play along, or else Akane would notice that he had teamed up with Kodachi.

Just as Kodachi was about to say something that would surely have caused Ryoga's plan to fail, Akane cut her word off by yelling: "Ryoga, you silly boy, you're taking the wrong direction."

"Oh right." Ryoga answered, faking a smile while he put his hand over Kodachi's mouth.

He could feel her hair as it fell over his arm now, it was soft and would sure feel good if one stroke through with one's fingers.

Ryoga would probably carry Kodachi back to her home like this, he didn't mind her weight as this was really an easy mark for a guy as strong as him, but it sure was nice carrying her like that.

Ryoga imagined doing that with Akane on their potential wedding day.

Unfortunately just as Ryoga was out of sight Kodachi quickly reacted and rammed a poison dart in his upper arm, Ryoga collapsed almost instantly.

He awoke back at the Kuno dojo and saw Kodachi sitting on her knees besides him and angrily looking down to him.

She instantly began talking to him, more like complaining at him, as he opened his eyes.

Ryoga was still dizzy from the poison and didn't really listen to what she said. From the angle Ryoga's head lay on the floor he could look up Kodachi's skirt and he saw that she was wearing regular white panties and not the notorious leotard.

In his state of absence from reality he just kept staring between her legs until he finally heard Kodachi say: "…And when she said you were walking in the wrong direction you didn't even bother turning."

Ryoga just laughed and turned on his back, Kodachi sighed and gave up talking to him while he was still under the effect of the poison.

The next time Ryoga awoke he was surprised to see Kodachi sitting before him with a tea kettle in her hand, it was late in the afternoon. Ryoga sat up and Kodachi poured him some tea, as she bend forward to do so her hair blocked Ryoga's sightline to the cup, he pushed her hair out of the way; he would not stand another dose of poison.

Kodachi looked up at him as he still held the hair out of her face; now the two were really close to each other and they both looked deeply in each other's eyes while Ryoga felt a strange flush of sudden warms accompanied by an increasing heartbeat.

Ryoga tried to unravel these new emotions, desperately waiting for Kodachi to make a move.

And indeed Kodachi made a move, but just entirely not the way Ryoga had expected; she spilled the tea!

It was cold on Ryoga's leg and he knew what this meant.

Within seconds Ryoga transformed into a small, black pig, Kodachi screamed at this frightening event.

"Why? Damn it why?" Ryoga thought, "Why does she put ice tea in a kettle!?"

He hated it when he was left in false security, not that he was naïve and would fall for something like that all the time, it was just that it was the douchiest thing people could do.

Ryoga ran away from the screaming Kodachi, trying to find a source of hot water to transform back to normal in.

He made his way through a long corridor while Kodachi was still after him, with poison, of course.

For once in his life Ryoga actually found what he wanted to find; the hot bath of the Kuno estate.

He jumped in the warm water and Kodachi followed him into it, just as he was about to transform back to normal, Kodachi gave him a dose of poison.

Luckily he transformed, or else the poison would have been so overdosed for the small pig body that he would have died.

Kodachi, who never really got this transformation thing, was very surprised to suddenly see Ryoga, who was now quite angry at her and removed the needle from his skin and poked it into Kodachi's arm while yelling: "No more of that poison, ever again!"

The poison worked very fast on both of them and they were now in actual danger, which none of them had calculated before. They made their way to the side of the bath in order to get out of the water before they would faint and drown.

Eventually Kodachi reached the side faster and pulled Ryoga behind her as he was already almost unconscious.

She could only make it so far as to lay on the side of the pool with her head lying on a stone outside of the water in a position she would not slip back in the water again. Ryoga simply fell on top of her like a bag of sand.

On the next day Ryoga awoke before Kodachi; he had had a nice sleep that night, it had been pretty comfortable in the warm water and now he found himself laying directly on Kodachi, face on face, chest on chest.

It was very soft as he lay on her like that and Ryoga was quite tempted to stay this way a little longer, not only because he was still a bit sleepy.

He just lay there with his cheek on her cheek and was suddenly very oblivious; the past day, with all its unfortunate happenings, seemed far gone from Ryoga now.

He felt her skin on his and the proportions of her body as he lay on her.

Ryoga was tempted. Tempted to let happen what there was to happen.

He turned his face slowly towards Kodachi's, on which it had been laying on before.

It was a perfect moment and He didn't hesitate to use his chance due to the still sleepy stage in which he was.

He kissed her on the cheek and it felt great, Ryoga didn't know why, technically he was still deeply in love with Akane.

Ryoga kissed Kodachi some more, he gave her many small kisses by removing his lips from her cheek close after skin contact but still staying in the distance of mere centimeters from her face.

He didn't even want to stop doing so, the moment was so surreal and yet so perfect.

But nothing lasts forever.

Kodachi woke up and Ryoga noticed it just before it had actually happened and pretended to be still asleep.

Kodachi fell for it, but instead of showing empathy and helping Ryoga out of the water she simply pushed him of herself and got up to leave the pool.

Of course Ryoga instantly emerged from the water and coughed long and loudly while Kodachi just looked at him.

As he was done coughing he started an argument with Kodachi about the ongoing intoxication, his tongue was still a bit limb so he referred to himself as "intoscipated" rather than "intoxicated".

Kodachi agreed to no longer use poison on him and Ryoga smiled, exposing his pointy, vampire-like teeth; maybe, so he thought, girls would fall for vampires especially when they're not cruel nor limited to be awake during the night like they were in the legends.

In the afternoon Kodachi and Ryoga had another training session together.

As Kodachi entered Ryoga was shocked to see her in her green leotard, he remembered what he had done in the morning; he had been greedy for what was now directly exposed to him.

He turned his head and quickly looked away, he had to tell Kodachi that she could not wear her favorite outfit during the training anymore. But he could also foresee that upon forbidding the famous Leo-  
tard rage had to be expected.

Kodachi came closer to Ryoga, giving him an even better view at her body as he already had, soon she stood right before him and he could feel again what he would consider his biggest weakness.

"You can't wear that leotard during the training, it's still too much into the whole rhythmic gymnastics scheme." Ryoga said very determined, "If you want to adapt to my fighting style and skill-level you will have to dress appropriately."

Kodachi took it well and asked: "What should I wear, are my normal clothes o.k.?"

Ryoga was relieved that she took it lightly and patted her shoulder laughing and said: "That is just what I meant, you're a quick learner."

Sasuke watched them from a far and could only shake his head over so much stupidity, he had seen this through since the start and that without having witnessed the pool-scene.

Ryoga and Kodachi were really not the smartest though, but by far not the dumbest guys, that had to be said.

Kodachi returned in her classic outfit, the one with the white blouse and the black, knee length skirt.

She still looked very fine, Ryoga thought.

She placed herself right before him and smiled a broad smile, Ryoga was irritated and pleased by that and was about to give her permission to fight.

Just before he did so he foolishly lifted up Kodachi's skirt to check if she might still wore the leotard underneath it, she grimaced as he did.

She did not, instead she wore a pair of pale blue panties.

Kodachi yelled at Ryoga and punched him in the face for doing that and his cheeks turned bright red, but after explaining himself Kodachi gave him some half-assed forgiveness and they began their training.

While training Ryoga thought on about Kodachi, he liked her physical appearance and he had some sort of power over her and he wanted to exploit that.

He had tasted her skin and seen her panties, and could not get his mind off that.

Also he never really had this sort of control over a person, he wondered how far he could push her and the thought of it let him forget mostly all of his gentleman rules he would usually live by.

Chivalry was dead, but a true king's reign is forever.

When the training was over Ryoga's head was full of ideas but nothing seemed to satisfy.

Kodachi made dinner for the two and they drank tea and talked for a long time afterwards.

None of them had an exact plan on how to beat Ranma which is why they eventually started talking about unrelated topics, after all they were teenagers.

The smell of chamomile tea was in the air, Kodachi had just made it freshly and as they talked Ryoga began to like her more and more.

They laughed a lot during this evening and Ryoga became more self-confident on his power over Kodachi and also really willing to prove this to himself.

Once more Ryoga took a deep breath of the chamomile smell and finally announced: "Kodachi, would you do me a favor?"

Kodachi lay her head on the side and asked back: "O.K. what favor."

Ryoga was getting a little nervous now, but overall he was still pretty relaxed.

He laughed, leaned back and said: "No I can't tell, besides it's not that important."

Kodachi smiled and made an offer. "Just whisper it in my ear."

Ryoga took her offer and came closer to her while keeping his sitting position mostly.

He was now sitting directly in front of her and it felt like he could even feel her breath on his skin.

He leaned to the side and came closer to Kodachi's cheek.

He pushed her hair out of the way and came even closer, Kodachi giggled.

Ryoga was now so close to Kodachi and he felt warmer when he was near her, it was as if she had built a tent around him, separating him from the outer world so he could only focus on her.

Ryoga whispered: "I can't tell."

Kodachi whispered back: "what? I couldn't hear you."

Ryoga was more confident to tell her now, but as he inhaled another breeze of chamomile he also wanted to kiss her.

Just as he was about in the distance he had to choose in between kiss and tell he was pulled back by Kuno.

"Do not touch my sister, wretch!" Kuno shouted, as he hit Ryoga from behind.

Ryoga felt treated unfair, but was ashamed at the same time and thus set the revenge plans that crossed his mind further into the future, for now he would just take Kuno's advice and call it a day.

Kuno stood guard until Kodachi and Ryoga had fallen asleep.

The training on this next day would be harder, Ryoga had figured.

The way Kodachi had smiled when her brother had removed him from her, so much glee and mischief, this too could not go unanswered.

Ryoga was really gonna torture Kodachi today.

She entered the room for training today and was surprised to see Ryoga as ambitious as never before.

He made forceful strikes into thin air, demonstrating strength and shouted to enhance the effect.

"Ah Kodachi, today is the most important day of our training, the Stamina training!" Ryoga announced, Stamina was his greatest strength.

Ryoga was one of the most endured martial artists in all japan and the entire world, in fact he could have traveled the whole world on foot, that was how endured he was.

"Ready your breakfast and eat hearty for today you will do Push-ups." Ryoga explained proudly.

And he wasn't lying, Kodachi had to do many, many push-ups while Ryoga observed.

But he wasn't quite happy with it.

Kodachi gave it all she got and had drunken a lot of Chamomile tea in the process and was now starting to get out of Breath.

Ryoga kneeled down besides Kodachi and observed her closely, she was good looking, but she looked by far too focused and forced for Ryoga's taste, there had to be a way to change that.

Ryoga kept staring at Kodachi and she noticed eventually, feeling uneasy then.

That was a site Ryoga liked much better, an intimidated Kodachi.

Kodachi gave up: "How 'bout we'll call this a day and train again tomorrow?"

Ryoga didn't quite wanna let her off the hook just now, this whole scheme still lacked something, but Ryoga couldn't figure out in particular what that was.

He denied her request and instead did just the exact opposite of what she had asked for.

He sat on Kodachi's back now, forcing her to do even harder push-ups.

Kodachi couldn't bear all that weight and soon came to lay flat on her stomach on the floor with Ryoga still on top of her.

Now she could really feel all the tea she had drunken add up and asked Ryoga once more: "Can't we make a break at least? I feel like I need to go."

She didn't have to tell Ryoga twice, he knew now what was there to do for him.

"What you need is relaxation." Ryoga said and began to position himself more comfortably on Kodachi, doing so by moving himself more and more from sitting to lying position.

"You just have to let go of the stress for a minute." He said almost seductively.

Now he lay exactly on top of her, and since she was exhausted she couldn't shake him off even now.

It was an unpleasant feeling for Kodachi being trapped like this and very uncomfortable in addition to a full bladder.

"Just let go." Ryoga whispered directly in her ear, he was so close that she could feel his warm breath against her cheek and even his pounding heart.

"Let go." He repeated it once more and Kodachi knew there was no other way.

Ryoga grabbed her hand and could feel it starting to tremble as she let go of what had stored up during the afternoon.

Ryoga was sure that she was probably soaking her panties and skirt-front by now and out of reflex, or maybe he could just not suppress it at the moment, gave her a passionate kiss on the cheek.

It was an unpleasant sticky warmth that spread beneath Kodachi's lap and a likewise unpleasant, sticky, warm kiss on her cheek.

Ryoga was happy, but it wouldn't last long.

It just so happened that Kuno and Sasuke showed up and saw Ryoga lying on Kodachi and the wet floor beneath the two.

Instantly Ryoga was pulled up and yelled at, then Sasuke escorted him outside the Dojo while Kuno helped his crying sister.

Ryoga was on his own again and felt quite guilty now and was ashamed of what he had just done; how could he ever justify that?

He wandered through the woods for many days until he finally regained the courage to go back to the village.

Ryoga wandered breathlessly in the unmerciful heat of the Japanese summer through the woods.

Or at least that was what Ryoga believed where he was.

Truly there was a jungle around him and he was in one of the worst places of Asia.

He carried on, almost succumbing to the heat thinking back to the encounter with Kodachi.

"The horror. . . the horror." He thought.

Finally back before the furinkan high school, Ryoga still wasn't sure what to do next, the only certain thing he knew was that he had to evade Kodachi by all means if he didn't want to die of shame, or more likely of poison.

After only a few minutes more Ryoga had made it to the Tendo dojo, in his effort not to run into Kodachi he had walked right to her house and from there on directly to the Tendos.

At the Dojo Ryoga spotted someone, likely Kodachi, and since he didn't want to be seen he jumped through the first window he saw.

The next moment he found himself with Ranma in the bathtub.

Ranma yelled at the unpleasant surprise of finding Ryoga in his tub, who tried to quickly explain the situation, not caring about Ranma being naked at all.

"Oh Ranma did you know I had an unpleasant encounter with Kodachi? It was terrible, you must help me, please do something, and quick!"

Ryoga shouted, wanting to shift his own problems onto Ranma as everyone else in their neighborhood would.

Ranma stood up and shouted back: "Do you not notice that I want to take my bath in private!?"

"This is serious business Ranma! I really need your help." Ryoga retorted.

Ranma and Ryoga argued on, while they screamed at each other Ryoga too took his clothes off to join Ranma while bathing, their dispute would surely take it's time.

Ryoga's clothes were put where towels would usually be placed, to dry.

They sat in the tub both in the lotus-seat, knee against knee, and their argument started to come down and reasonable talk set in.

Ryoga had to explain.

He told the whole long awkward story to Ranma, on whose face a grin had formed over the progress.

Ranma had enjoyed himself quite a bit during the story Ryoga had told him and now laughed at him; much to Ryoga's shame, but he had seen it coming.

Completely out of the blue Happosai appeared, he would always hide in the bathroom while Ranma bathes in case he turns into female form.

Happosai was over-joyous, he laughed while jumping on Ryoga's back, he hung onto Ryoga and complemented him for what he had done to Kodachi; the only thing he didn't appreciate was that Ryoga hadn't brought him a souvenir.

"I'm gonna have to tell that to everyone, they need a shining example for what a student of mine should be like, haha!" With that Happosai ran out of the bathroom.

Ryoga jumped out of the tub and quickly put on his boxers, he still wore the bandana, and ran after Happosai; Akane and her relatives were the least people on earth he wanted to have to know what he had done to Kodachi.

The two raced through the whole Dojo multiple times, breaking ridiculous amounts of Japanese paraphernalia in the process, until Happosai ran around a corner and got kicked by Ranma.

Happosai's efforts to tell everyone of Ryoga's misfortunate encounter with Kodachi were in vain, this time, but he demanded Ryoga to stay longer in the Dojo and become his student, blackmailing him with telling everyone the truth.

Ryoga obviously took the opportunity of free training gladly, to him this was a win/win-situation.

Ryoga got to sleep in a room in the Tendo Dojo which he had to share with Ranma, usually Ranma's father Genma would have slept in this room but until Ryoga's stay was over he would have to spend the night in one room with his best friend Soun Tendo.

It was something of a sleepover party for the two fathers.

Ranma and Ryoga talked until late into the night; there was no point in arguing now, they were forced to be together and might as well share their experiences.

They were still both victims of the Jusenkyo curse originating from a spring, which had been existing for centuries on end and had proven to have been a true deathtrap for many, many creatures throughout these years.

The guard, who was a N°1 example of taxpayer's money at work, would usually come up with a short story about the drowning of a person or animal multiple hundred years ago, which would explain that everyone who has fallen into one of these ponds would transform into the drowned creature.

There was one detail, which was the most terrifying detail about the Jusenkyo curse, that the guard would not explain to the (un)lucky travelers.

It was the one thing that bugged the victims of the curse more than any misfortunate outcome that may come up after their transformation.

Ranma and Ryoga had both never talked about this topic, but now as they lay in the quite of the Japanese night Ryoga began to ask questions.

"You know Ranma, about the curse, when you transform, can you see it too?"

Ranma was hesitant to answer at, recalling the experience in his mind.

"Do you mean you can feel it too?" He whispered back, "I thought I was the only one, my father had never said anything."

"It is horrible, isn't it? The moment you relive the drowning seconds of your other form?"

Ranma nodded slowly, Ryoga could just make out the move, his eyes had already gotten used to the darkness.

"But the transformation back is the true horror." Ranma said slowly.

They talked on about their experiences with transforming for a pretty long time, they even remembered what Happosai had told them some time ago, that there was also a pond of a drowned teenage boy which would, in their case, negate most of the curses effects.

"You know what?" Ranma had an idea, "If you're so hot for Kodachi why don't you just get along with her? From her money we could easily afford a trip to Jusenkyo."

"It was a one-time mistake!" Ryoga defended himself stubbornly.

"You don't get it Ryoga, this is our ticket to Jusenkyo!" Ranma was so used to being the one who everyone loads their problems on that this time he wanted to be the one who can lay back and watch someone else do all the work.

Like father, like son.

The two decided to call it a day and went to sleep.

The next morning they all enjoyed a great breakfast, Soun always glanced over to Genma as if he was nervous.

After breakfast Ryoga, Genma and Soun had a training session with Happosai.

Happosai divided them into groups, he would fight Genma while Ryoga had to fight Soun.

During their battle when Ryoga and Soun stood close to each other in hand-to-hand combat Soun started to strike up a whispered conversation with Ryoga.

"Psst, Ryoga, I need your help, it's important and there is nobody else I can tell this too."

Ryoga nodded as they pushed each other multiple meters back just to jump back to the center and duel on.

"It's about Genma," Soun proposed, "I think I'm in love; what should I do!?"

Ryoga was confused at first, but after the training he had thought the whole thing through and pulled Soun over.

"You need to confess to him and have a talk with him, how it makes him feel and what it does to him, but you can't just ask him while everybody is around the house, but don't worry, I'll figure out a way you two can be alone."

Ryoga said reassuring as he patted Soun's shoulder.

After the training Ryoga returned to Ranma.

"Everybody's troubles are piling up on me." He said bewildered.

"Join the Club." Came the short answer to his complain.

Ryoga was surprised by this reaction: "Are you not gonna help me out with this."

Ranma shook his head: "you can't just pile your things up on me and besides, Pile-sharing is a no-go."

Ryoga had thought about his peculiar situation for quite a while now, it had become evening and he sat in his room alone tonight, Ranma was off to a new adventure of some sort at this hour.

But Ryoga too would get to experience an adventure tonight, he just didn't know it yet, and that would make it all the more adventurous.

He lay in bed, his mind slowly drifting apart, preparing him for sleeping phase and some interesting dreams, as he noticed a movement in the corner of the room.

As the martial artist he is his senses all became alarmed immediately, then there was the quiet again; that the trespasser had stopped would only decrease its chances to attack, as Ryoga's eyes could now adjust to the darkness and focus the intruder by its next move.

There was no next move.

It must have been a shadow in the shallow moonlight, but just to make sure Ryoga got up to check on the house, especially to ensure Akane was safe.

Half an hour later Ryoga had finally found Akane, she was in the kitchen pouring some water, he told her that he suspected an intruder in the house.

"Oh no, Ryoga, i remember the first time we had someone in our house, are you really sure it had happened again?" Akane asked worried and frightened.

"Not for certain." Ryoga admitted, "But i don't think this intruder will claim to be your fiancée anyway." He smiled, Akane smiled back, she was so sweet and innocent in her pajamas and not a tomboy as Ranma would have said.

They made their way to the living room, Ryoga following Akane, and sat down at the table.

"It was nice of you to warn me about the possible intruder anyway, Ranma would have not even woken up if there was an intruder right next to him."

Akane smiled and then added: "Now that I'm warned if there is an intruder he's gonna have a hard time getting past us!"

Ryoga made a face like he had never known Akane was like this.

Akane began to speak again and that with a voice of happy excitement this time: "What if it's only P-Chan who had come to visit me again!"

Akane's expression shifted again: "You didn't step on P-Chan by accident while searching the intruder, did you?"

Ryoga laughed it off, waved to Akane and went back to bed with a grin on his face and a pounding heart.

An hour later Ryoga returned, after his long march through the Tendo Dojo he had become pretty sure that it had just been a shadow.

He saw Ranma had already returned to his bed, covered by his sheets and lay himself beside him.

Before he fell asleep again he recalled the conversation with Akane; he had been alone with her, in his true form, and it had been a nice conversation between them and Akane had even complimented him of some sort.

The evening couldn't have gotten any better for him.

He had never been this far from the truth.

But he wouldn't have to worry about that for the time being, as he had just fallen asleep.

Soon enough Ryoga had woken up again, the room door was wide open and there was light coming from the hallway.

He turned around, Ranma was gone, but presumably through the window, as it was open again and Ranma was no big fan of using the stairs.

He turned his way back to the hallway, who could have turned the light on, probably Akane though.

He had dreamt of this scenario various times, Akane sneaking up to his bed just to kiss him in the middle of the night when nobody would notice.

Maybe even kissing him awake and then just whispering: "ssshhhh." shortly before leaving him again.

But he knew this was just a dream, a fantasy, too good to be true; by the next second he would see Ranma's shadow in the light of the hallway on his way back to his bed.

And indeed the shadow came and Ryoga instantly gave up on his dreams for this night.

But as the person stood in the doorway Ryoga's hope got replenished, it was a girl, and smaller then girl-type Ranma, but too backlit to be recognized.

Ryoga waited motionless in anticipation, He knew in the last second, when he would finally be able to see if it was really Akane or just one of her sister playing a prank on him, he would have to close his eyes to not scare Akane away if it was really her and she was trying to kiss him.

Now the girl was close to Ryoga, his heart raced at the speed of sound, she began to lean down to him, he had to close his eyes.

It was the moment of truth; would he be kissed by the love of his life or smothered by an intruder who was out to kill him.

It came as a surprise greater than thousand surprise birthday parties.

He felt the breath of the girl right before his face, hesitating before the point of no return.

She did not change her mind, it felt so good on Ryoga's lips when his dream finally came true, so warm and so determined to give love.

He couldn't have imagined it better in the many fantasies he used to have.

He would have really wanted to open his eyes and reply to the kissing, but he stayed silent, his heart was beating at a speed it had never beaten before and he felt so incredibly warm, as warm as one can feel before it would get to warm to still be enjoyable.

The girl removed her lips, but the kiss stayed, at least in Ryoga's memory.

He was so excited and the thoughts in his head were running wild; he didn't even notice the girl leaving through the window.

He would spent the whole rest of the night and every following night thinking back to what had just happened to him.

On the next day Ranma reminded Ryoga again that he had to talk to Kodachi again in order to seduce her and get to her money.

"But why me?!" Ryoga asked once again, "Haven't i told you how royally i screwed it up last time, do you seriously think she still likes me?"

"You are the only one who likes her, like really likes her," He added with a smile, "and i can't risk to get my ass beat by that tomboy which is Akane."

"I'm not in love with Kodachi." Ryoga whispered calmly, but determined, "I did what i did in a misguided error, what would i personally benefit from Kodachi. . . you-know-what."

Ranma smiled gleefully and loudly said: "hahaha, i think you like it that way, maybe i should tell akane about your little preference for wet panties, i bet she likes it too."

Ryoga blushed and got angry, exposing his vampire-like teeth and yelling at Ranma.

Then they had to train with Happosai again.

On the following evenings of nearly the entire week Ryoga got to bed hoping.

And awoke with his wishes unsatisfied.

One of these nights however Ryoga had a strange dream of some sort.

He was in his room, there was a small black fan on a table before him, standing next to a computer, which was supposedly connected to cameras hidden each in on room of the dojo in the upper corner.

Indeed over the camera he could really easily spot an intruder.

Just as he saw one though, the computer froze and he had to reset the camera.

He could see more movements, but it was not clearly visible who the intruder was.

This happened a lot of times throughout the dream but never could Ryoga identify the person.

The hours went by in his dream and suddenly it turned 6 am, Ryoga heard bells and the screaming of happy children.

That was when his dream ended and he got up for another day of fight training with Happosai.

After this hard day of training Ryoga couldn't wait to get to bed.

No, tired he was not, anticipating was more like it.

The encounter he had a few nights ago was still a cozy plaze in his memory, a memory which he wanted to relive.

In his bed he lay awake for a long time, just listening to Ranma's snoring.

He had almost fallen asleep as he heard as he heard a low noise and then saw the familiar shadow of the unknown person appear.

He closed his eyes and waited in longing anticipation.

And yet again he felt her approaching, this time she kneeled over him, but without touching him.

And once again he felt the hair stroking him, the breath on his face and then the kiss on his lips.

Softer than shadows and quicker than flies, but still given with so much love; a secret all so secret that the wish could only be fulfilled in the middle of night.

The intruder probably had her reasons for that.

As she kissed he could also feel her body, with that all the anticipation, suppressed longings and most prominently some sort of excitement.

He hoped that she wouldn't feel the same in him.

She lifted her head again, her deed was done and she crawled of Ryoga backwards.

He grabbed her knee just as she tried to move her leg back.

It was only a short move, but she lost her balance.

She fell right on Ryoga.

Fuck, there was no way he was still asleep.

She was right, Ryoga was awake as never before.

It was soft, he could feel her fine form on his body.

A warmth so faith inducing.

He had caught her off-guard and now could practically feel her surprise and shame, so he faked his awakening.

There it was, this funny feeling again, she had even shrieked, nonetheless Ranma had luckily not woken up.

Ryoga was at the edge, he liked to inflict shame in girls, he had just never realized.

He opened his eyes.

He himself could see nothing, his eyes hadn't adjusted, but she could see, she kissed him again, not for pleasure but to minimize his view on her.

Ryoga felt something intense.

After the kiss she quickly got up and clumsily ran out of the room, kicking Ranma in the process.

A perfect night for Ryoga.

"Now who was that kissing you good night, heartbreaker?" Ranma said with a devilish smile.

Ryoga blushed, now he was the one to be caught redhanded.

But the momentary shock didn't last long: "I thought this was you." Ryoga answered with an undertone that could not have been more ironic.

He had signaled Ranma this way that they should just simply turn their backs to each other and sleep, what they did.

Ranma had long grown out of actually seeing Ryoga as a rival, he just liked to tease him.

This was because Ranma had one day come to the realization that Ryoga was probably his only friend who had no interest in a marriage with him, besides the guy who considered drinking tea a sport.

But that guy was still a bigger idiot than Ryoga, and besides if you do not do anything other than drinking tea you could only make a lame innuendo on watersports if you wanted to draw the line in the direction of sport.

On this day Ryoga would have to talk to Kodachi, he wasn't looking forward to it, really not.

But Ranma had set it all up and they had tricked Kodachi into a romantic dinner, but had left out the part with who she would have to dine.

At the Kuno estate: "Miss Kodachi, there is a letter for you." Sasuke announced.

He produced a pink envelope full of heart-shaped stamps and with cheap perfume on and held it directly under Kodachi's nose.

She grabbed the letter hastily and started talking in a fast, excited fashion.

"It just must be from Ranma" she said it and pressed the letter against herself, "he is finally confessing his love to me."

Kuno and Sasuke looked at her with bewildered faces.

She was already overly happy even before she had opened the envelope.

But she would not get to open it.

Kuno grabbed the envelope just as she was about to open it.

"I cannot let you open what comes from that despicable Ranma, what if it's just another of his dirty tricks to get back on me and he has a bomb placed in the envelope."

With these words he opened the envelope.

And nothing happened.

Kodachi ripped the letter out of his hands and read it to herself.

It was Ranma confessing his love, as she had thought, her lips, which had been quietly moving while she read stopped as she came to this point of the letter.

Below the love confession there was an invitation to a secret dinner at the Tendo Dojo alongside the most impressive description of the way to find the Tendo dojo she had ever seen.

The day passed and Kodachi prepared herself for the evening with Ranma, she wore a white kimono and strolled through her garden humming in anticipation of her date.

The evening came, Kodachi walked through the orange, already turning purple, evening light along the canal and thought back to the letter: "Oh Ranma silly."

She smiled, the evening air was warm and the day couldn't have been any better for her.

a beautiful charming small-town they all lived in.

She arrived at the tendo dojo and was gladly greeted by Genma, who had already been standing in the doorway, smiling broadly, showing off two rows of teeth in shiny white.

She was led in, it was dark in the dining room, candles were lit near the walls, backlighting whoever was in the centre of the room, sitting by the table, which would soon be her and Ranma.

Kodachi sat down by the table and smiled a small smile as Kasumi came with the tray.

She would have given so much for this moment to come, but now that it was there it felt so anticlimactic to her.

Just as if you're moving in with your idol, she felt so small and vulnerable in this moment, it felt just all wrong and out of place, having to dine with Ranma had become a chore.

"whatch out, you might get what you're after," such a fitting quote.

The food was good, but Kodachi chewed long on every bite, she still felt like being whatched, as if this was only some favor Ranma would do her because she had begged with him.

But Ranma must have felt the same, he did not talk either and seemed to eat slowly too, as far as could be seen in the moody light.

When dinner was over Kodachi still didn't feel better but she had to say something, if not she would have wasted the possibly best chance with Ranma she might get.

"So Ranma, what have you been up to?" It didn't really interest her, but it would hint on the question what they were up to now.

"Training" came as the short answer. "Too bad," Kodachi thought, "this is never gonna get anywhere."

A few more questions with short answers, often just a "mmh" as if they were maincast to a chocoblade-commercial later Kodachi had to reconsider and try something else to get to Ranma.

"Hmmm. . ." she thought, "If i was the one to write this dialogue, how would i have to begin to get Ranma to talk?" she asked herself.

She smiled, "now i've got it," and asked Ranma to show her the restroom.

This was the moment where Ryoga cursed himself that he wasn't the first one to open his mouth, now he could not anymore ask her to invite him and half of the dojo staff on a boat trip to Yusenkio.

He was perfectly disguised as Ranma, and had barely spoken to not break the illusion.

In fact he had even found a store in which he had found an exact replica of Ranma's outfit, strangely though, as the shopkeeper had told him there is a flouriscating market for dressing like a japanese person you have never met and then expecting that some guy's leftover teenagerfantasy would become reality to you.

However there was one thing Ranma, the actual Ranma, had what Ryoga didn't have; he knew where the bathroom was. believe it or not, but during his entire stay Ryoga had just kneeled on the windowsill and pissed outside the building like he was some kind of seventies teenager at a party.

Now he had to go and walk through the dojo with Kodachi by his side, hoping she would spot the toilet when they passed by.

He took her hand without thinking, only as he felt the warmth and the moment of hesitation in Kodachi's hand he noticed what he had just done, but at that point he had to press on.

And it was to be their romantic dinner anyway.

In Kodachi's plan everything had worked well as planned.

Ranma was already holding hands with her.

now she would just have to try and lead him out of the house and back to her own dojo.

but first she really had to visit their bathroom, all the green tea she had drunken for her upset stomache came into play now.

They moved through the dojo for some time, but as it wasn't that big they found the bathroom after, for Ryoga's standards, short time.

But it was occupied, at least that came shouting through the door in unison by Genma and Soun.

Kodachi and "Ranma" looked at each other in disbelieve, but then he just smiled and made a very Ranma-like comment: "maybe they're just trying to figure out why girls always go to the bathroom in pairs."

Kodachi bend over and whispered a few short sentences in his ear.

His eyes widened and he laughed in amazement: "Wow, i have really never viewed it from that point!"

But this little revelation that Ryoga had just received would, unfortunately, not solve their toiletproblem.

Now it was Kodachi's turn again: "We could hurry to my place, I think we can make it in time."

Kodachi was gonna take the shortcut over the rooftops to get back home quickly, but then she remembered she couldn't be holding hands with Ranma and if they don't, Ranma may just drop her off at her door.

she had to take the slow way, walking along the canal with it's water flowing mercilessly.

Ranma, relaxed as ever, asked Kodachi for the letter he had written her, to go by his map.

She gave him the letter, now that it was dark and she wasn't on the rooftop she really didn't know where they were to go.

She gave the letter one last look as she returned it back to sender, and inhaled sharply in horror, it would be a long way home.

Ryoga walked confidently, his eyes almost never leaving the map in his hand, Kodachi would pull him towards her if he was heading for a lamppost.

he followed a long straight line, which would at some undefined point just sharply make a turn to the right and lead into a ball of wool of some sort.

Of course this long line led along the canal with the metal fence on which the actual Ranma would have walked.

luckily Ryoga was holding Kodachi's hand and therefore had not to perform this dangerous stunt again.

He had done that once in advance of the date to be prepared, and had landed very inconveniently on the metal fence after slipping off with his feet.

Today the only person that would feel inconvenient by the metal fence was Kodachi.

The river was trickling on, and they were holding hands on a summer evening, it could be so romantic if it wasn't for Kodachi's bladder.

Of course if one was Ryoga this could be considered a derivate of romantic, she grimly thought to herself. She still had not fully forgiven him that.

"Did you know Ryoga can be a real pig sometimes." she exclaimed.

"Ranma" stared at her with his every sences alarmed. "Oh fuck, how could she ever know!"

he thought, then calmed down and asked Kodachi, as unsuspicious as he could, why she thought so.

she looked down and lingered with her reply, then she whispered: "He's an asshole for the better knowing."

Ryoga smiled awkwardly as he heard that, but he had to admit, it came as no real surprise.

Just after Kodachi had said that, she threw herself at him, now supporting herself somehow against his side, with his arm laid around her.

she looked very sweet this way, but why was she trying that right now?

she had said she'd have to go and now she was all flirty.

Ryoga was, also he really didn't wanna spoil Kodachi's good mood, really, really curious what she would answer if being asked about why Ryoga is so bad in her opinion.

Her expression changed at an instant and she was like she had been before she had thrown herself against him.

"He was being naughty and i don't want to talk about that anymore." That sounded like she was comparing him to Happosai.

"He was being naughty, isn't that normally what Happosai is like?" Ryoga asked bluntly.

Kodachi sighed and gave him an angry look: "can we just move on please," she said and then changed from annoyed to pleading, "I gotta go, or else I might just won't have to anymore!"

a broad smile came across Ryoga's face, in this moment he had been triggered against his will.

Images came to his mind, thighs and panties, things that were now concealed by a kimono.

tight fabric, so perfectly soft as if woven directly around her hips.

How she would struggle and dance around to prevent what there was to happen.

Then the clenching of said thighs followed by a small stream from her panties steadily rushing down these elegant legs.

Tender age in bloom.

She would probably not even bring out a single word, hot as fever and red in the face.

And he himself would be most pleased but not entirely satisfied.

It would only be the beginning of something wonderful, he reminded himself that it had theoretically already begun.

And that could only mean now was the time to go on.

Just as he was at the end of this thought, he was pulled away by Kodachi, who was running to her house now, which they must have somehow been walking towards it without him noticing.

Kodachi rushed in and they finally let loose of each other's hand and while Kodachi went to the bathroom Ryoga waited for her inside the giant parlor.

She came back and lead him to her room.

In the room they waited around, now that Kodachi had Ranma where she wanted she ran out of ideas and suddenly it all felt so insecure as it had felt at the start of this evening.

They sat down, Kodachi was full of grim about herself now.

Suddenly she had a hand on her shoulder, she looked up and saw the faithful eyes of Ranma focused on her.

"I know what it's like," he said with a warm voice, "I've been observing the evening quite well now and I feel just the same, it's all too short, we should take it slow."

Kodachi was comforted, she could only smile in Ranma's warm eyes.

As if reading her mind he continued: "But you can't narrow my dojo, because of that tomboyish watchdog, but I know something you and her don't know."

Kodachi was still puzzled, and so "Ranma" explained a little more, he talked about the cursed springs and Ryoga's attempts to win over the heart of Akane.

He played Kodachi well, not only making her accept to set up a boat for a trip to Jusenkyo, but also pushing her into further helping Ryoga with Akane when on the boat.

He smiled, the first act was done.

\- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -


	2. the end

I'm not happy with the first chapter I wrote at all, which is why I took so much time to write this second chapter here.

Here's a little summary of the previous events: Ryoga meets Kodachi at her home and sees she is quite gullible, so he tricks her into doing a lot of demeaning things to please him, pretending to be her trainer.

When he discovers how much Kodachi hates Akane and how she is crazy for Ranma he uses it for his own gain, as he disguises himself as Ranma.

He then talks her into taking the actual Ranma, nearly everyone from the Tendo Dojo and himself on a cruise to the cursed springs, in a new attempt to lift his curse.

Plus he had promised to couple up Genma and Soun, and a cruise would be a good way to get them together.

The Rose of darkness; The end

"push it in!" I hear the man yell.

"One last time!"

"Is it just me or is it getting harder every time I push?"

Finally the boat is in the water and the journey begins, but I couldn't be making my journey without Kodachi making the journey.

They've warned me, they've warned everyone, she has lost her mind.

Nobody knows her story and perhaps the fact that nobody ever got close enough attached to know is part of all that, but that's not how my story, the story of my journey, began.

I woke up dizzy in the Tendo dojo, my whole arm was numb and when I tried to get up I could only change positions from flat on my back to curled up on my side, it was hopeless, I didn't know it back then, but something had changed me, it had changed me even before the journey had begun.

I rolled back on my back and my arm fell flat over my chest, with the hand resting over my shoulder, I still feel nothing of it in my fingers.

For a second I see myself piled up in bodies, is that what's happening?

No. It's just my arm and I'm certainly alive, although I don't feel like it, I don't feel like it at all.

This was supposed to be my Story, but you couldn't tell my story without telling the story of yusenkio.

So I went to the library of applied martial arts.

I found out quite some interesting stories about yusenkio, there is an antique police record about the unnatural deaths at the springs, the y-files.

Within the y-files there are many theories about "Charlie the curse", the killer who supposedly drowned all the people and creatures in the ponds. My senses started tingling as I read the name "Ben" in the y-files.

He was a boy. and he died in the cursed springs. maybe he was the key to reversing the curse!

Later I learned this track lead nowhere.

It was Kodachi, it was all Kodachi.

She and her boat were the key to freedom from the curse.

But I had never seen the boat.

Would it even be suitable for all of us?

There were the two fathers, Ranma and Akane, and the sisters of Akane.

I reached the house after a day's travel and gladly I found a brush to hide in.

It was already dark.

I could see the silhouette of a mighty ship in her gardens pond.

I crawled closer, the heat had set in the standing evening air and the headache from today's morning had come back.

I crawled through the bushwhack, closer to the ship. I heard a chuckle, it was the laughter of Kodachi.

I stopped right away, she didn't notice me.

I sat beside a great tree, I was too close to the ship to see it in whole anymore and so I could only see Kodachi.

She held something heavy in her hand, she had stretched out her arm.

All of a sudden a giant beast shot out of the water and into the air.

"The turtle" or something, that was what she had called it, her crocodile.

Seeing her now, so fearless, her laughter sounded almost maniacal.

It was so hollow, almost sad for some reason.

Kodachi made her way back to the estate.

I could now enter the ship.

It was big, there was a lot of space even inside, you could still see though this had once been a war boat.

I walked all over it, I checked the cabins through the windows, Hammocks were the only place to sleep there.

When I made it of the boat again the sun had already risen.

I still had to make it back to the Tendo dojo and from there on to the river with the others.

It took me a week to get back to the Tendo dojo, it had been a hard journey.

The others told me I was late once again. Well define others, everyone but Ranma had already left, that lazy slacker was probably planning on avoiding to push the boat into the water.

Ranma had always been a procrastinator.

Sure he was one tough guy in a fight, but his street smarts were what made him sting.

Everyone's Hero, what a joke.

We made our way to the boat with Ranma guiding me.

It wasn't as massive as I had seen it a few nights ago, must have had something in my eye or it was just darker than I thought.

PRESENT DAY

The boat is all set as Ranma and I enter.

We are first greeted by Akane and her sisters.

They were three pretty girls, but they couldn't have been more different.

The oldest one was very kind natured and had grown into a mother figure for her younger sisters.

The middle one was the dangerous type, cold blooded and probably smarter than anyone on the ship, but to no use of anyone but herself.

And then there was Akane, she was tough on the one side, but pretty hot headed if you pushed the wrong buttons.

She just wasn't the smartest kind of person, all due respect.

We quickly shook hands with each other, it was awkward here on that boat, that screamed "military" all over it.

I follow Ranma to our cabin, it had been clear to me from the start that we would have to share one.

Ranma wasn't a bad guy, we just had our fights over the same girl, Akane.

Did this spell trouble over our mission? I don't think so.

We could settle this when the curse was lifted and the odds were even. For now we had to work together, after all we were brothers in arms.

Soun and Genma entered our room, the two fathers.

two fathers from different families to be said.

Genma often talked a lot smarter than his wits could actually back up to and Soun had a touch for the melodramatic.

They bring us good news, Tatewaki Kuno has caught the flu, a sad, but not a rare fate.

He isn't joining our cruise, and Sasuke neither.

Kodachi is on her own with two families she hardly had any business with.

Heck, I remember my first night at the Tendo dojo, they are some tribe.

We haven't even met Kodachi yet and the boat is already going through the dense, unmerciful, Japanese jungle.

The times wouldn't turn out to be all that tough as I had feared before.

We had started with only little things prepared beforehand.

It took me some time to get used to the ships layout.

It is evening, I had eaten hearty, at this rate we will end up in a famine in a week's time.

It is a nice summer evening and the sun was almost gone, but if you know evenings like this you'll know it can stay this way for hours.

Suddenly I hear laughter from behind one of the wooden doors.

I open up and see it is my own room that I share with Ranma, what a lucky coincidence.

Ranma, Nabiki and Akane are also all there, they sit on the floor in lotus seats, I join in.

The bottle spins and misses me close before stopping at Nabiki.

She introduces me to the game saying that you'll either have to kiss or to answer a question honestly before further spinning the bottle.

I knew some basics in that matter, but this abomination was new to me.

"Hey Nabiki, riddle me that", Ranma says smiling nonchalantly, "If you did take pictures of me sleeping and sell them, who will guarantee you didn't do that with Akane too?"

You gotta see this.

If you'd think that would bring Nabiki on shaky ground you are mistaken.

She calmly balances herself on one hand, with the other one reaching out to Ranma, who sits opposing her.

Of course it all happens a lot faster as I see it now, but this is one of those moments you hardly ever forget

While she leans further into the kiss, which is actually probably against the rules, as she's practicing the concept of the game practically backwards, I see Akane moving the bottle over to me. It even happens fast although I'm still in that epic shock moment slow motion.

"The bottle points on Ryoga actually." she says as she quickly pushes the two away from each other.

What was Ranma thinking kissing Nabiki?

I know it was part of the game and I'm supposed to take advantage of every chance he gets to blow it with Akane, but why?

Probably he really is the jackass I'd always thought he'd be, but on the other hand you'd had to be one to participate in a game like that, probably.

I kiss Nabiki on her lips before anything else can even happen, only now I realize I would have been supposed to wait for Ranma's question.

I open up my eyes in a short moment of shocking realization only to see the godlike expression on Akane's face.

I had probably just made some points on her scoreboard if I do say so.

Revenge is sweet, suck it Nabiki, as I suck on her lips.

Ranma is obviously relieved now two, but more so amused.

Nabiki looks blurred before my eyes, her lips are wet to a point that would probably have grossed Ranma out, how was he not sea sick yet anyway?

It didn't gross me out anyway, heck I don't know why I'm doing all this lately, there must be something in the water or the sudden weather changes.

Meanwhile at Kodachi's room.

Ryoga is an Idiot, she thought to herself.

And that was probably just the case, luckily she couldn't see the shenanigans he's gotten himself into the moment she had thought that.

But she was just lying to herself now.

Deep inside she liked Ryoga, she was a rebel and an outcast for sure, but so was he.

The most people she knew wouldn't dare treat her like he had.

Maybe it was just his stupidity after all, but it had made a lasting impression on her and the way she felt towards him.

This was her cruise, the adventure of her lifetime, and she would make it special for the both of them, she promised herself.

"Heck," I thought to myself, "first day over."

I had gotten quite a beating from the sisters last night.

I'm not sure whether I should have been glad that Ranma had kept Akane from beating me up after the first few punches or if that was just one of his schemes to take her from me.

Whatever he wants from her anyway.

Now I didn't feel so mighty fine today, but you'll never know what comes.

Today's breakfast: fish from the river, caught by Genma.

Right, Genma and Soun, that was another problem I was left with to solve, and eagerly so. If Ranma's and Akane's father are together they were like brother and sister, that is strictly opposed to lovers.

I should have thought of that from day one but I never knew it could have been that easy.

It must be the ship, since you cannot leave it I didn't have to worry about finding the way anywhere.

That my mood had improved was an understatement.

"Hey Soun, have you been talking to Genma already?"

He scratches the back of his head and grins with his cheeks blushing red.

Just as I thought, he hadn't had the guts to tell him right away.

"Did you ever try to confess your love to anyone?" He asked me out of the blue.

Smile while you can, Soun, I'll be your cupid and you'll see who is gonna get the heart of their special someone.

Of course I said yes to him, but he wouldn't believe it, rightfully so.

But in front of him I could never confess to Akane, even if the time was right and my curse broken.

He would let nothing get in between his little arrangement with Genma.

I would get him in a spot first were he had to decide whether to never be married to Genma or to never have Akane be married to Ranma.

But it wasn't as easy as that, Genma had to love Soun back and I had to confess my love to someone but Akane before Soun's eyes without Akane ever knowing.

I must have been lying to myself earlier as I spent half an hour once again trying to figure out where me hammock is; feeling moody.

I lay there and stared up into the blue sky, with the dense canopy of the jungle trees covering my view on the sides and thought about my one perfect master plan.

I might just have figured out a way to get both Genma and Soun and Akane and me together before the boat would reach yusenkio.

Now if that will be the case Ranma's hopelessness once the love of his life is in my arms might just shoo him off the boat, so I'll be the only one to get his curse removed.

Or not, and he still couldn't be mad at me as I made his father happy and got Kodachi to take us to yusenkio.

Where was she anyway? probably bothering Ranma.

Another cursed fifteen minutes went and with the only result to prove my assumption wrong.

Ranma was peacefully training martial arts with Genma.

I would have liked Kodachi to nag him a little; if there was a scoreboard for Akane liking Ranma every word he says to Kodachi would be a minus on his list.

I went away from old Ranma, he was a too big boaster to train with.

I keep quite while I train, what's the use in talking, I can let my fists do the talking if I want, but that wasn't what was called for here.

A true martial artist finds peace in his training, not anger, I learned that the hard way, figuring out the breaking point technique.

I walked back and went inside the boat in a larger, relatively empty room, but alas it was already used for training by Kodachi now.

She hadn't heard me coming in so I stood in the door way and watched her spin her green ribbon through the air.

By the way she looked at it it seemed like she wanted to hypnotize herself.

She had potential, it hurts to know Ranma is still better than me, but I used to only train myself with the motivation of vengeance for too long.

Kodachi was not that way, she could beat Ranma anytime, given that she had the right training beforehand.

I was also getting dizzy from watching the spinning ribbon for so long.

I looked in her dark brown eyes from across the room, she was still fixated on the ribbon, smiling in peace for herself.

I didn't want to bother her now that she was so focused, but just as I thought that she seemed to have noticed me.

She came over to me, she was actually a bit smaller than me, and came to a halt.

Involuntarily I had to think of what Ranma had once told me about her, that she was always in action.

But the longer I knew her the less it seemed like that.

She greeted me calmly, was probably even more relaxed than I was today, I can still remember the way she had greeted me for the first time, this here was totally different.

Her hair was very dense when standing near her. "I'm sorry, I wasn't planning on interrupting your training." I said to her.

For a moment she just smiled at me with that puppy eyes of hers and then she pulled me to the middle of the room and we started training together.

Kodachi's moves had improved significantly and we trained for long and had a good fight.

To tell the truth she kicked my rear that afternoon, but I had had it coming, I'm not gonna lie.

As she sat on top of me, beating my face in, Ranma came in.

Kodachi moved, relief!

He chuckled, but as he saw my beaten face he knew we hadn't been making out, or he would have believed that this is what you get if you make out with her.

Either way with the two together I could tell them of my plan, as they had inevitably to be part of it.

Sounds strange, but I know Ranma well enough that he would do nearly anything to save face, even pretending he does not love Akane.

And he was even as arrogant as to think he could do so without ever having to fear anyone taking her away from him.

Little did he know he was just about to dig his own grave here.

So we all gathered around and talked a little about training and the journey, trying not to reveal anything about the curse to Kodachi, which was hard.

"Hey people, I have a little problem you need to help me with." I told them, "It's about Soun, he is in love with someone and afraid to confess it, so I have a few favours to ask for."

"Fine, Ryoga, what is it?" Ranma answered me in a voice I didn't like.

"You, Ranma," I continued, "need only do one thing, and that is distracting Akane while I falsely propose my love to you, Kodachi. And aside from that I'll have to ask for another favor from you, I need a love potion to ensure Soun and his love interest will get together."

Before Kodachi could even reply me Ranma shouted: "Who is this love interest of Soun anyway!?" He was in his anger stance already, I could tell.

Now I had to be careful about what I say.

"There's not many left if you are out of the way and Kodachi and I are already paired up." I said as calm as I could, "All he's left with is his own family."

"He has my father!" Ranma yelled and I could almost see his teeth getting pointier as he did that.

Kodachi laughed, I liked the sound of that, the attention was now focused away from me, but I couldn't let her take the blame now.

"I know it's your father but, think about it, the two of them will be happy and if they get married you will be Akane's brother, not her fiancé anymore."

And for a brief moment I saw something flash over Ranma's face, something like regret.

"What about Akane, you can't know how she will react to it." Now he was calmer, probably smug because he thinks that one's gonna be it.

Kodachi laughed and said, in a voice as high as she could. "My Ranma, why do you worry so about that meddler!?"

We exchanged looks, for like a second then Ranma flailed his arms through the air running wild to explain it was just out of politeness towards his new sister.

Kodachi had some potential indeed, in ways Ranma never knew to exploit, he was wiggling but it was quicksand we got him on.

"Pathetic." was Kodachi's only comment after he had left.

"How long is it going to take you to create a proper love potion?" I asked her and she told me it was three days, then she looked me in the eye and asked me if I was really going to propose to her and I said no, you know, like a liar.

But she was serious and so I apologized for that and all the other things I had done wrong leading to the situation with the boat.

It felt kind of funny now talking to her about all these different things.

She had wet herself because of me and my foolishness after all, and now she was looking into my face with that sad eyes of hers, through that long, thick hair of hers.

Another training session, this time Ranma joined us, and then I went to bed, tomorrow was gonna be the first of the three days on which Kodachi would work on the love potion.

Another morning, another fish for breakfast.

I got up and Kodachi and I got off the boat, I read that this is the one thing you should never do in the yusenkio journal I have, but I guess it was o.k. since we did not touch the water.

Now to the dangerous part, we had to move into the jungle, enemy territory.

"Pay attention to every little noise Kodachi, it's a jungle out there and we cannot allow us not to be the first one to strike, there may be no second strike after all."

"Thanks for the warning, but I was already aware of that before."

"Charlie is out here." I whisper.

"The Vietnamese?" She whispers back.

"Nope, the taxidermist."

Now we are out in the unmerciful depth of the jungle, searching for certain herbal ingredients for Kodachi's potion.

"Hey Kodachi, is this really going to work?"

"Trust me, it's an old family recipe."

"Figures."

"What was that!?"

Oh no, now I've done it, one careless word too much and I had her against me all over.

"Ryoga answer me, now!"

Uh-oh, she was back to that screaming she normally only does when Ranma is around.

"I meant to say that is why you are so lovely." I tried to save myself.

"'Guess I've heard of stranger things."

I didn't know what to make of that answer, but she didn't seem too mad anymore.

We were lucky, the day was only half over when we found our first ingredient.

"If you still don't believe me you can try a little of the ingredient and see for yourself." Kodachi said angrily.

I offered to grind the herbs for her which she luckily accepted.

Then suddenly there was a loud noise, a whistle of sort, and we both knew it was Charlie.

I grabbed the mortar and the rest of the herbal leaves, Kodachi really knew how to dry plants fast.

We ran off, spears and arrows flew behind us and the whistling continued, getting louder all the time, it sounded like an alarm now.

Charlie and his men must have been near; I just ran, one foot in front of the other, my eyes focused on the ground as not to trip over the dense undergrowth.

Good, I still had Kodachi's hand in mine, it was sweaty as we reached the deadfall.

I couldn't believe what I saw; a tree as huge as a house had fallen over in the middle of the jungle, it mustn't have been lying here for more than a day, but it was so enormously massive you needed probably a whole canister of nitro glycerin to blow a hole through it.

Even if we tried to walk around the tree we would probably just end up being cornered, eerily now the whistling had also stopped.

"What are we going to do now Ryoga!?" Kodachi broke the dead silence that had fallen.

I had to look around for a bit, it had to go quick, Charlie wouldn't give us a head start.

"There!" She yelled, and started to run, nearly dragging me along.

She had found a ditch under the fallen tree that would work as a tunnel for us to crawl through.

We nearly jumped in and landed on our bellies, robbing underneath the heavy log.

There was a puddle of muddy water in the ditch, but luckily it was warm water so I didn't turn into a pig now; if Charlie had dogs after us they would probably be even more eager to catch me if I was a little piggy like that.

We crawled through the muddy puddle on our bellies until we were way under the tree before we noticed we didn't see the light that was supposed to be on the other.

In a moment of shock Kodachi let go of my hand.

We dug what our hands allowed us to carry up in that confined space, reaching ever more down into the muddy water and throwing the dirt behind and besides us.

Finally we would eventually fit under the log.

We dragged ourselves forward into the pitch blackness, now with only our noses above the water and the wood massive and impenetrable above us only luck could help us now getting to other side.

Kodachi hit me with her arm unintentionally, good to know she was still there and moving, breathing.

But then, just as I could see the light, I got stuck underneath the wood, I had to dig myself free again.

I dug but it didn't do much, I had only made way for me if I arched my spine and held my face under water.

The gap was too small for me to keep my head above the surface.

I had to risk it, either that or death by the hands of Charlie.

I took a breath as deep as I could in that narrow space and heard Kodachi do the same, then I put my head down and pushed forward.

I did not come very far until I had to dig again; nervous was an understatement for what I felt in that moment.

I was desperate, I was no longer digging, I was clawing the earth with my hands, trying to pull myself forward, just somehow out of the water.

I hit my head on the wood, but all it did for me was getting one eye above the surface, not more.

I tried to wiggle myself on my back, but gave up, if I did that I might not have been able to dig anymore, and I would have drowned by the time I had turned back around.

I gave it all and barely made, I had no power left in my body and that as one of the most endured martial artists of all Asia.

I had my head above the water, but I wasn't sure for how long I could keep it that way.

I reached out for Kodachi and all I felt was her hair, I looked over and saw her lying there, her face still under the water.

It was good that I could see her, that meant we were close to the exit.

I grabbed her arm from under the water and with the little space I had left to move I pulled her further out, but it was worse than I had expected, she must have fallen unconscious.

I dragged her along, it had to go fast.

The ditch was on this side of the log too, but not so deep as it was on the other side, I could finally stand up again and take a breath of fresh, heavy jungle air. We were save from Charlie now.

I put Kodachi in recovery position and halfway through she luckily came to.

We sat, our faces black from the mud, with our backs against the tree and watched the sun sink through the dense fog that had built up in the jungle.

Neither of us spoke, I guess it was the shock.

I can't remember when we fell asleep, but not much had happened after escaping Charlie.

We woke up in the middle of the night and saw the ship in the distance, it must have driven around the big log while we were out exploring and fleeing from Charlie.

It would be an easy journey back, the jungle wasn't all that dense and it wasn't very far.

It must have been late as no one on the ship was awake anymore.

"Do you still have the ingredient?" Kodachi asked me out of the blue, in fact at first I didn't know what she was talking about, but then I found the tiny plastic bag in my pocket.

Hastily Kodachi opened it up and dust came out.

"So far so good, it has stayed dry." I said to her, she just smiled at me and told me I was smart for bringing the plastic bag.

"A plastic bag will outlive anyone you've ever known." I answered to her dry.

She looks at me for a second, her eyes are dark and serious, yet they reflect the moon like the muddy water in the river does.

A moody, soothing light is in her eyes. Then she smiles again.

"What's that smell?"

"That," she says and grabs me by my collar, "is our first ingredient."

She is really close to me now.

"What . . . ?" I reply, in that moment a swift reaction seemed more appropriate than a witty one.

I could not have better judged the situation, but I wasn't really expecting Kodachi to help me out on this one, given the late hour and that she had poisoned us yet again.

It might seem stupid, but with her so close to me now I had not more than one question in my mind: did she like Alice cooper or would she be affectionate to poison anyway?

Her hair was really dense and black and a little curly, she wasn't exactly a looker after all that crawling through the dirt but neither was I and it was pretty dark out here.

It felt like I was just watching this from a video or something, the moment with Kodachi so close before me.

It made me laugh, I suppressed it though.

I had to remind myself over and over that I was really there, that it was my life that just happened, that I couldn't just wait while someone else would figure out what would happen next.

I had to take actions and these actions would matter.

Kodachi embraced me, it was so warm and soft that I got that dreamy feeling right back again.

The only thing I did now was to let my head fall backwards, this must have probably prevented her from kissing me.

I reminded myself once again that it had been her who had spotted the ditch under the tree, she had saved my life only a few hours ago, I should spare her the shame of having kissed me under the influence of herbal drugs.

Finally she let go, relief!

I just turned around and wandered about the ship to find my room.

Unfortunately Kodachi came up behind me and pushed until I was right in front of the door, which wasn't that far from where I had started my search.

Then she kissed me on the cheek as I just opened the door, rats!

I went to sleep hoping she forgets that.

I woke up and we had breakfast.

I love the smell of fish in the morning *puke*

Kodachi and I went back into the unmerciful jungle, once again making easy prey for Charlie and his men.

Today we were very fortunate though, as it was foggy in the jungle and you couldn't see much.

Kodachi was very happy to have me with her, as I knew the way blind as well as open eyed.

We found all the ingredients we needed before noon and I thought we were going to go back now, but Kodachi had a different thing in mind.

"I need to ask you something, but don't laugh." Kodachi said to me, and an ominous and a bad feeling developed inside of me.

Was she gonna ask about the kiss or not?

"I promise." I answered shortly, what else was I to do?

"Did we kiss last night?" She asked me and blushed, I smiled, because my guess had been right, but Kodachi must have mistaken it for a different smile.

Then I remembered we still had six empty glass bottles with us to bring fresh water with, the river water wasn't pure and thus full of dangerous salmonella.

"No." I said, you know, like John Mulaney.

"But we could make it all happen right now." I said as suave as I could, and came closer to her, feeling her warm breath against my face.

She was smiling as I embraced her.

"Will you wet yourself for me?" I whispered, and only in doing so I noticed how heavy I was breathing.

I didn't wait for her to reply, I just kissed her on her lips and in that intense moment it felt like I was both her and me.

And she wet herself indeed, I was pressed so tightly against her body I could feel her building up pressure on her bladder.

And then I woke up with what felt like a gazillion degrees fever.

But the bottles in the dream were a pretty good idea, except that in my dream it felt like they were meant for some kind of impossible combination of spin the bottle and Russian roulette.

So Kodachi and I ate our fish, and I'm not gonna lie it was a weird weird morning, like Monday morning in a Garfield comic.

She must have not forgotten the kiss.

But after all she had initiated it, but I could keep telling myself that probably all day long and wouldn't have been able to shake that weird feeling off.

She was still wanting to get back into the jungle with me, but then I told her of my idea with the bottles and that the river water might really be full of dangerous salmonella and that bear grills had already drank his own piss and so on.

She agreed to take some bottles with us, then I noticed what horrible mistake I had made, what if the rest of my dreams now also came true, on the other hand the dream hadn't been so bad.

We found all the final ingredients and got some clean water with us, Kodachi didn't mention anything about last night to me, was her strange love potion really making her this scary oblivious?

I still didn't believe it.

Today we were lucky not to run into old Charlie.

We could already see the ship when Kodachi turned around gracefully, which was somehow weird, and said. "We've forgotten something for the potion."

Then she grabbed me by the hand, thankfully with haste and not graceful again, which would have been a lot weirder.

She pulled me right into a cave.

Since yesterdays encounter with Charlie I had actually had enough of narrow, dank spaces the likes of caves.

In the cave I bonked my head on things, Kodachi pulled me towards her, as to keep me from wandering off to far in the wrong direction.

I felt her standing before me now very closely, I could feel her warmth as if she was almost embracing me, it was awkward, I tried taking a step back and bumped my head again.

It was audible the way I had bumped my head on the rock, and it hurt too.

I tumbled forward again and closer to Kodachi, she didn't back away, probably couldn't.

There was stone everywhere in the pitch blackness of the cave and I wasn't sure if Kodachi could find anything in here.

"This is an awkward moment, please walk away." I said stubbornly.

"Very funny." Was Kodachi's reply.

She was holding onto me at this point, probably to keep me from tumbling into the walls again.

She let me go with one arm and scanned the walls with one hand, we were lucky we could still faintly see the exit, but Kodachi wanted to go deeper.

I held onto her hand tightly as we walked further into the dark cave.

Luckily the cave didn't go much deeper in, the exit though was now out of view.

Kodachi had found the rare dead-end-cave-petal or whatever she called it and we could leave the cave again.

Unfortunately another problem arose out of this immediately, Kodachi couldn't get around me so I had to lead on.

It wasn't one of those simple jobs where you were in a hallway so narrow there was only one way to go, but more like running into walls a lot.

Kodachi kept pushing me, playfully though, but when I finally fell I could catch myself, but she fell on top of me.

She just kept on giggling, it was this crazy thing again where we were high on some voodoo priest illegal herbs and secluded from everyone else.

Kodachi was warm and close to me and it looked as though she wasn't even planning on getting off of me.

The cave floor was covered in stinky cave moss which was also soft, so I didn't mind too much.

She was breathing in my face now as her giggling slowly subsided.

Her breath was warm, but not smelly or unpleasant, and I hoped she would feel the same way about my breath.

She came closer, part of me said not again, another part of me told me to get it over with.

Then we kissed, it was intense and lasted for a long time.

I felt what I had never felt before, it was better than it had been in my dream but it really did feel like I was both her and me.

I felt it all in the heat and the pounding and still rising heartbeat, it was like some sort of forgiveness, more than just letting go, or letting your mind drift off for a second. And I knew she felt the same way. Secure.

I could barely see her face in the seconds after the kiss but I knew what she was thinking.

We got out of the cave and I told her all about my dream and asked her about last night's kiss.

At that moment I no longer believed, no longer cared if her affection towards me was only just because of her herbs.

I could be as honest towards her as I wanted to now, and if she stopped sharing my feelings within the next few hours I would probably die over the broken heart and need not worry about my reputation.

It was simple as that, but this afternoon all the potential bitterness in bittersweet was absent.

Better yet, it was just sweetness, without the bitter.

We got to the point where the rotten potion was finally brewed and we could start with the coupling of Genma and Soun.

Kodachi and I had to find some way to secretly put it in their food unnoticed, after that we had to kiss.

We got everyone out on deck, we actually had to sink the anchor as no one would be their to steer the ship.

Kodachi had set up a table for everyone and we held it all very festive, but also very secretive as to why it was so festive.

Only Nabiki was involved in the plan, and she also only knew half the truth.

We had set up one of the big sails horizontal to shield us from the sun when we held our feast and proposal of questionable love.

Apparently Kodachi had already poisoned the food while she prepared it, or should we say seasoned.

I helped Kodachi in the kitchen or whatever they call it on a ship, mostly by taking taste samples.

I noticed she was nervous and frankly so was I.

I took Kodachi's hand and said: "Hey I'm just as nervous as you to pull this thing off, but let's just get out there and get it over with and then we'll just eat as if nothing happened." I teased her a bit.

"Not like we really mean it or anything." She said back and giggled; it was seldom that I had ever heard her giggle, it had only been since we were on the ship and growing a little closer to each other.

Surely her giggling felt a lot more honest than her over the top laughing.

We brought the food on deck and realized this story was far from over as he still had to find that stupid cursed spring.

The Lunch was finally served, it was a hot day and the air smelled distinctively of the Food we had cooked and still very much of the stale water underneath our boat.

After everyone was done eating Kodachi and I were supposed to make our proposal of mutual love for each other.

I was nervous, Kodachi wore a pretty white Kimono, and also it didn't make her seem any older or more mature than she really was the beauty of it combined with her body language showing she was absolutely at ease made the whole situation even harder.

Kodachi and I got up and I hoped that nobody would look up at either of us while we were still walking towards each other, and gladly this wish was fulfilled.

We finally came to stand next to each other and she laid her arm around my shoulder and I did the same to her, though we didn't look at each other.

My heart was pounding, Kodachi still seemed very much at ease, but I was so so nervous.

She was warm and she smelled good, familiar, but in this situation it didn't help at all.

In another life we might have been cousins at a family cookout holding a little speech, but now and here, in this reality we were a secret couple about to kiss ourselves in front of everyone we knew.

We finally looked into each others eyes, but only briefly, now I saw Kodachi was also smiling nervously.

She picked up a fork and hit a glass on the table, but as quiet as she could.

Only a few people looked into the direction of the sound, and only as they saw the two of us standing there together more eyes turned on us.

We looked into each others eyes again and Kodachi had that secure expressions again while I was literally shaking.

As if by remote control we came closer to each other.

I could feel Kodachi even before we actually embraced, much less kissed, this is hard to describe so I hope you'll know what I mean with that anyways.

We both had that shy smile on our faces like it was the first time we'd ever do this and I have to say it hadn't felt remotely like that the first time we had kissed.

This time I was far more nervous and it all was far more exciting. It wasn't naughty what I felt like in that moment, it was adventures.

A kiss into the unknown, whatever would happen from now on could not be changed or undone or ever taken back.

I'm close before her, her wonderful eyes take up my entire field of view and we're about to lock lips.

Then the entire boat rocked.

Kodachi and I were the closest to the edge and since we were busy holding on to each other we didn't actually held on to the boat and thus we fell off just before the kiss.

We fell and I was struck by an intense fear; If we landed in the water I'd turn into a guinea pig, if we landed on the land we'd turn into pancakes.

We fell through the branches of a tree, they were dense, but not hard.

The ship must have hit land while we were having lunch.

Finally we stopped falling, the landing was hard, but not painful or dangerous, seconds later however the dessert landed next to us, the only food we had spiked with the love drug.

I helped Kodachi up and then pulled her close to me.

I was still excited to kiss her, but now that we were out of view it all was a lot more relaxed.

She pulled her clothes back into place and looked really neat again.

She was so beautiful and inviting in that school uniform.

She smiled at me and I knew she still was as thrilled for the kiss as I was. At first we only hugged each other, it was nice to feel her body pressed against me so tight.

It was like before we kissed we had to test how tight exactly we could hold each other.

Then we kissed each other carefully, nobody could see us sure, but we continued playing this role of kissing each other in front of everyone and being extremely nervous about our performance, the thrill of that made it all even better.

Kissing meant no turning back and we both knew that, but it wasn't the commitment, it was the risks we ignored.

To boldly kiss Kodachi the way Ranma would never kiss Akane.

After this short, but powerful kiss we stayed hugged, and that possibly even more intense than before.

We pressed our foreheads together and I looked into her very dark eyes and she looked into mine.

It was funny to look at her looking at me, but at the same time it felt good to have somebody you'd look at like that look back at you the same way.

I wasn't just looking at her and wishing us two together like I had done once with Akane, but we actually were together, looking at each other, knowing it was our mutual wish.

Looking back at how it had all started this all seemed so much improved.

"Kodachi you are perfect." I said to her and kissed her a second time, this time more passionately.

When I opened my eyes again after the kiss I saw Kodachi looking at me a little differently, teasingly.

Her eyes said I know what you want, though I doubted she really knew what I'd want.

I put my hand on the back of her thigh and just said out loud what I thought.

"Would you wet yourself for me?" I had said it, and like with the kiss there was no going back now.

It had been exciting the split second before I had said it, but now it was embarrassing and I felt my cheeks turn bright red.

Kodachi looked at me the way she had looked at me before our almost kiss on the boat.

Nervous, not afraid to make a move, but pondering within herself whether she should make a move or not.

We were no longer hugging, just holding ourselves at our hands, her face still gave nothing away when she said: "I have to go, but only a little bit."

Now I was really excited, the kissing was forgotten, we were beyond kissing, this was something special.

One might argue that I had already seen her wet herself, but never in this way; and never in this Kimono.

"Is this Kimono like a skirt?" I asked back, and by the way my heart was pounding now I could hardly believe I got this sentence out straight.

"Yes it is." Kodachi answered, still giving nothing away.

"It'll be just your panties then, you could go for it." I said.

"I could go for it." She replied.

The tension was nearly tearing me apart.

She left me waiting for a few endless seconds before she finally made her decision.

"I guess I could relieve myself in my Kimono."

The way she had formulated it made the whole thing even more exciting.

She was the one going to wet herself while I was the one being bound to burst, with excitement, that is.

I still held her hands and she looked at me once more, then she wet herself.

I looked at her kimono only, while still holding her hands and suddenly I saw drops of pee dropping down between her legs, she really hadn't had to go so bad.

The flow subsided and I looked up again, Kodachi was still looking down.

I reached out and caressed her cheek with my hand, now she too looked up at me.

Her face looked feverish, but satisfied.

I kept my hand on her cheek and gave her a kiss on the lips which she replied more eager than I had anticipated.

After that kiss Kodachi gave me a coy smile, but then we heard shouts.

Genma and Soun had come down here to look for us.

Maybe they would also use the magic of the moment like we just did, but likely our attempt at coupling them up had failed.

Whatsoever Kodachi and I had to run for it, we wouldn't want her to be caught with wet panties, although they were not in view she still was afraid Genma and Soun might notice something anyway.

I took her hand and ran, as we left the shadow of the tree I saw something in the distance, I couldn't make out what, but it seemed important.

But first it was important to get Kodachi back on the ship so she could change and the others needed no longer worry about us having fallen off the boat.

I'd have to go, see what that thing is.

There was a good chance Ranma and the others had not seen it and this was my moment to finally be somewhere first.

Kodachi and I made our way to her room, it was easy not to be spotted because everyone was probably off the boat searching for us.

We both sat down and I told her about my plan to go to that spot I had just seen.

"Before you rush of into the unknown," Kodachi said, teasing me, "I'd like to talk to you about something."

"Can't that wait? I gotta go." I urged her.

She took my hand and laid it on her thigh, "That is sort of what I want to talk to you about." She said and smiled, but her eyes were serious.

"What do you enjoy so much about me wetting my pants."

I smiled, but I was ashamed. "That is a questions I would under normal circumstances never be ready to answer, but you are something else."

I leaned forward and whispered my answer into her ear.

She smiled and moved my hand, still on her thigh, a little closer to her.

I kissed her goodbye and went on my adventure then.

I had known it when I first saw it, this was it, the one thing I would find.

The one thing only I could ever find.

There was a definite gap between the trees, and I would assume at either sunrise or sunset the sun would probably perfectly shine through that gap.

At that point the gap would not only be revealed to Ranma and the rest of the people on Kodachi's boat, but Charlie could also easily spot everyone walking along that path.

To a trained eye the people's silhouettes would stand out like shadows on a white wall.

I hurried through the path before my own Silhouette would stand out like a shadow on the wall to my fellows back on the ship.

I walked and walked through that pass until I finally saw it again, a small concrete entrance to a bunker concealed by the earth above and around it.

I entered the bunker carefully, it was not the cursed springs I had found, but it was a start.

I snuck as quietly as I could, this may well be the bunker of good old Charlie, perhaps if I managed to take this dangerous man down I become a hero, and a bigger hero than Ranma, that is.

I went around a corner and came into a corridor, then another corridor and another corner.

This Bunker was a spiral if I ever saw one, but it was incredible, I really could orientate here.

Now I finally understand what the people meant I had a bad sense of direction.

I really did have had a bad sense of direction all this time, this here was much easier.

I took another and there, in a poorly lit room, he sat.

It was Charlie, he was just pouring a bowl of water over his head muttering: "The horror, the horror."

And I knew the look on his face.

I even knew the horror he had just been talking about.

I even knew his face.

Charlie was the fountain guard.

"Wait, I know you!" I said with determination, "Stop right there, criminal scum!"

He looked up at me and for some strange reason he looked younger than I remembered him.

"Who is this?" He said in a dry voice, like he was someone else entirely, but I was sure of it he was the fountain guard.

"I'm Ryoga, and you are the fountain guide or should I say Charlie?"

"Fine, you've found out." Charlie said, still in his dry voice, "What do you want?"

"Show me the pond in which the most tragic of all stories had happened: the one in which a boy drowned."

"Is that another one of those creepy pastas?" He asked back, I stayed in silence.

"Fine." He said and stood up, "It's just not that easy."

Then it struck me; He had looked younger to me, he had just poured water over his head and he had just experienced a horror.

"You! You've used the water from the pond of the drowned boy as a means to prolong your own life! You're not just a fountain guard, you are the Fountain guard."

I pulled out a machete and demanded him to lead me to the pond, but he wouldn't do it.

"See the pond has run dry, I just used the last of its water. What did you think why I came up with this Charlie scheme again?"

"You'll need to find another boy to drown." I said, pressing the tip of my machete under his chin. "You and what Army?" I then added.

"I need a pure boy. You already fell into another fountain, it wouldn't work this way."

"Fine, we'll work together." I said to him, but the only boy pure of the fountains curse I knew was the brother of Kodachi, and I wouldn't do that to her.

"How good are you at this? Fighting?" I asked him instead.

"Hunting, and I'm very good at it." With that said we made our way outside the bunker.

Our deal was sealed, at all cost did we have to find a boy that has never been to the fountains and sacrifice him there. It is the only way.

The End.

Started: 20th of October 2015

Finished: 4th of March 2017

Should I rewrite the first chapter or not?

\- o - o - o - o -


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